Harry Kane: Understanding tactics

My manager wants the team to be able to play multiple systems, but all the different instructions are confusing me. How do you get your head around it?
Ian Gibbons, via twitter

Harry Kane says:

More after the break

“You’ve got to listen to what the manager wants. If he wants you to go and do a certain job, even if you don’t agree with it, just listen to what he says and go out there and do it.

This doesn’t start in the dressing room during the pre-match team-talk. This starts on the training ground.

This is where you’ve got to put in all your hard work. The training ground is where the trophies are won – that’s where you impress the manager and get in the team.

In training you’ve got to be 100 per cent switched on, otherwise, when it gets to the game – when it really matters – you’re not going to remember what you’ve been asked to do. This could disrupt the whole tactical plan.

You don’t want to let any of your team-mates down so you have to concentrate on what you’ve been asked to do.

To make sure I’m doing the right things in games I like to watch my performances back again.

When you watch it back you can see where the manager was coming from. You can see why he asked you to do a particular job and how it helped the team.

You need to be flexible because the manager is always going to want to change tactics. You can’t expect to play in one formation in every game – you have to be able to adapt and play in any system.”

Harry Kane was a NikeTown London to give Nike Football App members insights into how to become a deadly striker. Harry Kane wears the Flash Dri-FIT Cool shirt, Strike shorts and Nike Hypervenom II, available now from nike.com